Black Cats Beware: Kitty Lovers Think You're Aloof

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Black cats may bring bad luck, but to themselves rather than to
people. A new study suggests that sable-colored felines are
stereotyped as more aloof than their orange peers, a prejudice
that may help explain why black cats take longer to be adopted
than other colored kitties.

The findings, published in the Dec. 4 issue of the journal
Anthrozoos, suggest that prejudice against black cats goes beyond
superstition.

"Previous research supports the existence of 'black cat'
syndrome, where black and brown cats are less likely to be
adopted than cats of other colors," Mikel Delgado, a researcher
at University of California at Berkeley, said in a statement. "We
were interested in whether people’s perceptions of the
interaction between personality and coat color might play a
part."

But the prejudice against cats with certain coat colors may go
beyond superstition. To see how, Delgado found cat lovers on
Craigslist and asked them to rate black, multicolored (such as
tabby ), and orange cats on personality measures such as
friendliness, laziness and stubbornness.

All the cat aficionados said personality was the most important
factor in choosing a cat. However, kitties of different colors
were ascribed different personality traits.

Black cats were seen as more antisocial than other types of cats,
along with their white and three-tone brethren. Overall, orange
cats were perceived as the friendliest.